Keynotes

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Confirmed keynotes in alphabetical order:

Dr. Mérouane Debbah, Huawei, France

Title: Machine Learning for Green Wireless

Abstract: Mobile cellular networks are becoming increasingly complex to manage while classical deployment/optimization techniques are cost-ineffective and thus seen as stopgaps. This is all the more difficult considering the extreme constraints of 5G networks in terms of data rate (more than 10 Gb/s), massive connectivity (more than 1000000 devices per km2), latency (under 1ms) and energy efficiency (a reduction by a factor of 100 with respect to 4G network). Unfortunately, the development of adequate solutions is severely limited by the scarcity of the actual ressources (energy, bandwidth and space). Recently, the community has turned to a new ressource known as Artificial Intelligence at all layers of the network to exploit the increasing computing power afforded by the improvement in Moore’s law in combination with the availability of huge data in 5G networks. This is an important paradigm shift which considers the increasing data flood/huge number of nodes as an opportunity rather than a curse. In this talk, we will discuss through various examples how the recent advances in big data algorithms can provide an efficient framework for the design of 5G Intelligent Networks.

Short bio: Mérouane Debbah entered the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay (France) in 1996 where he received his M.Sc and Ph.D. degrees respectively. He worked for Motorola Labs (Saclay, France) from 1999-2002 and the Vienna Research Center for Telecommunications (Vienna, Austria) until 2003. From 2003 to 2007, he joined the Mobile Communications department of the Institut Eurecom (Sophia Antipolis, France) as an Assistant Professor. Since 2007, he is a Full Professor at CentraleSupelec (Gif-sur-Yvette, France). From 2007 to 2014, he was the director of the Alcatel-Lucent Chair on Flexible Radio. Since 2014, he is Vice-President of the Huawei France R&D center and director of the Mathematical and Algorithmic Sciences Lab. His research interests lie in fundamental mathematics, algorithms, statistics, information & communication sciences research. He is an Associate Editor in Chief of the journal Random Matrix: Theory and Applications and was an associate and senior area editor for IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing respectively in 2011-2013 and 2013-2014. Mérouane Debbah is a recipient of the ERC grant MORE (Advanced Mathematical Tools for Complex Network Engineering). He is a IEEE Fellow, a WWRF Fellow and a member of the academic senate of Paris-Saclay. He has managed 8 EU projects and more than 24 national and international projects. He received 17 best paper awards, among which the 2007 IEEE GLOBECOM best paper award, the Wi-Opt 2009 best paper award, the 2010 Newcom++ best paper award, the WUN CogCom Best Paper 2012 and 2013 Award, the 2014 WCNC best paper award, the 2015 ICC best paper award, the 2015 IEEE Communications Society Leonard G. Abraham Prize, the 2015 IEEE Communications Society Fred W. Ellersick Prize, the 2016 IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial paper award, the 2016 European Wireless Best Paper Award and the 2017 Eurasip Best Paper Award as well as the Valuetools 2007, Valuetools 2008, CrownCom2009, Valuetools 2012 and SAM 2014 best student paper awards. He is the recipient of the Mario Boella award in 2005, the IEEE Glavieux Prize Award in 2011 and the Qualcomm Innovation Prize Award in 2012.

Abstract: The talk will report results from the EPSRC Programme grant: "Towards Ultimate Convergence of All Networks - TOUCAN". Key outcomes will be discussed addressing physical layer and software network technologies for convergence. Future challenges and opportunities will be presented focusing on themes such as end-to-end network automation using advances in Machine Learning and data analytics.

Short bio: Dimitra Simeonidou is a Full Professor at the University of Bristol, the Director of the Smart Internet Lab and Head of the High-Performance Networks group (HPN). Her research is focusing in the fields of high performance networks, programmable networks, wireless-optical convergence and smart city infrastructures. Dimitra has been the Technical Architect and the CTO of the smart city project Bristol Is Open. She is currently leading Bristol’s 5G urban pilots. She is the author and co-author of over 400 publications, numerous patents and several major contributions to standards. She has been co-founder of two spin-out companies, the latest being the University of Bristol VC funded spin-out Zeetta Networks, http://www.zeetta.com, delivering SDN solutions for enterprise networks. Dimitra is a Royal Society Wolfson scholar

Abstract: Wireless communication networks composed of devices that can harvest energy from nature will lead to the green future of wireless, as energy harvesting offers the possibility of perpetual network operation without adverse effects on the environment. By developing effective and robust communication techniques to be used under energy harvesting conditions, some of the communication devices in a heterogeneous network can even be taken off the grid. Energy harvesting brings new considerations to system level design of wireless communication networks, leading to new insights. These include randomness and intermittency of available energy, as well as additional system issues to be concerned about such as energy storage capacity and processing complexity. Additionally, one can now envision such devices engaging in energy cooperation by powering one another to improve overall network performance. The goal of this talk is to furnish the audience with fundamental design principles of energy harvesting and energy cooperating wireless communication networks which is an emerging research area.

Short bio: Aylin Yener is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA, since 2010, where she joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2002. Since 2017, she is a Dean’s Fellow in the College of Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. From 2016-2018, she was a Visiting Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. From 2008 to 2009, she was a Visiting Associate Professor with the same department. Her research interests include information theory, communication theory, and network science, with recent emphasis on green communications and information security. She received the NSF CAREER award in 2003, the Best Paper Award in Communication Theory in the IEEE International Conference on Communications in 2010, the Penn State Engineering Alumni Society (PSEAS) Outstanding Research Award in 2010, the IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award in 2014, the PSEAS Premier Research Award in 2014, and the Leonard A. Doggett Award for Outstanding Writing in Electrical Engineering at Penn State in 2014. She is a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Communications Society (2018-2020) and the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (2017-2019). She is a fellow of the IEEE. Dr. Yener is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society (2015-2020), where she was previously the treasurer (2012-2014). She served as the student committee chair for the IEEE Information Theory Society 2007-2011, and was the co-founder of the Annual School of Information Theory in North America co-organizing the school in 2008, 2009, and 2010. She was a technical (co)-chair for various symposia/tracks at the IEEE ICC, PIMRC, VTC, WCNC, and Asilomar (2005-2014). She served as an editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS (2009 - 2012), an editor and an editorial advisory board member for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS (2001-2012), and a guest editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION FORENSICS AND SECURITY (2011) and the IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS (2015). Currently, she serves on the editorial board of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MOBILE COMPUTING and as a senior editor for the IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS ON COMMUNICATIONS.

Prof. Xiaohu You, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

Title: AI for 5G - Research Directions and Paradigms

Abstract: The 5th generation (5G) wireless communications techniques will provide mobile networks with omnipresent and fundamental capabilities and support rapid network development. Those techniques can not only fulfill the requirement of 1000 times increase of internet traﬃc in the next decade, but also oﬀer the underlying technologies to the entire industry and ecology. Compared with the existing mobile communications techniques, 5G techniques are more-widely applicable but the corresponding system design is more complicated. To this end, the resurgence of artiﬁcial intelligence (AI) techniques can oﬀer an alternative option, which is possibly superior over traditional ideas and performance. This talk ﬁrst combs through several promising directions of AI for 5G, based on the understanding of key 5G techniques. The talk then devotes itself to providing design paradigms; including 5G network optimization, optimal resource allocation, 5G physical layer uniﬁed acceleration, and end-to-end physical layer joint optimization.

Short bio: Xiao-Hu You received his Ph.D. from Southeast University, Nanjing, China, in Electrical Engineering in 1988. Since 1990, he has been working with the National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory at Southeast University, where he is currently a Professor and the Director. He has contributed over 150 IEEE journal papers in the areas of signal processing and wireless communications. From 1998 to 2016, he was the Principal Expert of the 3G, 4G and 5G Research Projects under China National 863 High-Tech Program, respectively. Professor You was the General Chair for IEEE WCNC 2013 and IEEE VTC 2016. He was the recipient of the National 1st Class Invention Prize in 2011, and was selected as IEEE Fellow in same year.